Till There was You
by Shinlee
Summary: Hector doesn't understand love... he actually doesn't know how it feels. He only has Uther, Eliwood, loyal companions and knights. So, the fact that Eliwood madly in love with Ninian is quite shocking him. But the best surprise is yet to come.


_**Standard disclaimer applied. **_

"_**Till There was You" belongs to The Beatles.**_

_**

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**_**Till There was You**

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_**There were bells on a hill  
But I never heard them ringing  
No I never heard them at all  
Till there was you**_

_**There were birds in the sky  
But I never saw them winging  
No I never saw them at all  
Till there was you**_

_**Then there was music and wonderful roses  
They tell me in sweet fragrant meadows of dawn and dew**_

_**There was love all around  
But I never heard it singing  
No I never heard it at all  
Till there was you**_

_**Then there was music and wonderful roses  
They tell me in sweet fragrant meadows of dawn and dew**_

_**There was love all around  
But I never heard it singing  
No I never heard it at all  
Till there was you**_

_**Till there was you**_

I don't know anything about love.

... Surprised? I really don't know anything about it. That Eliwood maybe madly in love with that Ninian girl, but to tell you the truth, I never know how it looks like. Love? What is it?

I lost my parents when I was young, and may I say, Uther raised me eversince. You know I grow up in such 'busy' circumstances and that really teaches me to be strong, to never back down, to stand still with my head held high. Because just the two of us in this world now—me and Uther. My brother is always busy with his job—I call it a job, yes. Everyday is official for Uther for he devotes anything, everything for our beloved Lycia. I do know how not easy it is to rule a castle—especially when the castle you live in is the head castle of the Lycian League. I won't tell Uther not to slow down a bit, because he told me that he did expect to equal our father, both in prowess and wisdom. He said he wanted to be worthy of his name…

At first I pay no mind to it. For me it's important to become strong, to excel in combat and battle and surpass _Eliwood _in almost anything. Yep, that Eliwood, that bestfriend of mine. The first time we shook hands I know that he is different with any other 'lord kids' I know… but that just doesn't stop our rivalry. Eliwood wields rapier and I prefer axe. I see Eliwood's graceful moves everytime he unsheathes his sword—a sword that won't be unsheathed for nothing.

My axe is always 'naked'. I do love it that way.

Then some bad things happened and I take my man to join Eliwood's force to save the world. Albeit worrying over some things, deep inside I'm happy to be reunited with Eliwood again… and I'm hoping some scratches—means I expect we will spar again like we used to.

But look at him now! He isn't completely 'alone'—that girl is always beside him. The mysterious girl with her little brother is talking to Eliwood. She wears a beautiful cyan longdress and sitting gracefully beside him, her eyes is beaming with joy. Ninian, the girl Eliwood saved before.

I see Eliwood laughs… but…

Eliwood never laughed like that before—at least never that I know of. Even he doesn't hang his sword to his belt as always—he put it on the table, and he sits awfully casual.

Awfully… yes, awfully.

"Oh, there you are, Hector!" Eliwood exclaims as he sees me coming. "If you excuse me, Ninian," that's what he said to the girl before heading to the threshold, the place where I'm standing right now.

And something is different with him this time. "I uh… how about sparring with me again, Eliwood? This nasty situation doesn't let us to rejoice even a bit. Things are under control right now, so why don't we—well, we have an appointment about that, I'm _not_ interrupting."

He waves his hand in front of me. "Not now. I already promised Ninian to take her to the garden…"

To the… WHAT?

"Excuse me?"

"Garden, duh. A place full of flowers, my friend," he looks puzzled by my inane comment. But it doesn't stay long—the minute after he whispers to me in such panicky, "do you think she'll like it? I almost run out of idea, I want her to see me trustworthy enough so that she won't be hesitated to tell me her stories anymore."

"Um, Eliwood—" should I remind him that this isn't the first time he takes Ninian to the garden? And he always do that in the time like this; our training-sparring-fighting time.

"And I want to create such relaxing ambience, you know. Her mind is always restless, Hector, do you remember the day we found her on that boat? Those scratches, bruises… if only I knew who did that to her. How could a man have the heart to do that to a helpless woman like that? Well, Hector—"

"Helpless woman…"

"Yes! A woman and her underage little brother travel alone, make their living by dancing and playing music on the road. And some nasty men just can't help staring at her beautiful figure and I too can't help holding myself back. I almost kill some, Hector—"

Great. Now I feel like becoming a priest and someone is standing in front of me, making his confession. "Father, I have sinned. I've just realized that I too, like most men, have that damsel in distress-lover syndrome."

"Eliwood, you're blushing."

"Am I? Well, where were we? Oh yes, the hard life she is facing—"

"For short, Eliwood," I quickly cut him off before he continues blabbering, "you want to be close to her more."

"Yes! For crying out loud, yes!"

"And…" I take a breath, "you cancel our training _just_ to take her walk."

"Precisely."

"And you think about taking her to the garden a few minutes ago, compared to our long-live promise of training together and becoming the best in the art of fighting. Or our appointment about sparring which is made long before this war starts. Eliwood, seriously, you aren't thinking of spending the time with her 24/7 are you?"

"God yes! Yes—what?"

"Well goodluck, _Jellywood_," I tap his shoulder like tapping a little puppy and slam the door behind me. However I still can hear Eliwood calls my name repeatedly, telling me that the appointment to 'dance' is delayed until tomorrow evening because he promised to dine with Ninian. I can hear Ninian telling Eliwood that she is sorry for being such trouble. Ninian states that Eliwood can cancel the dinner to spar with me, but as expected, he wouldn't want to miss the dance.

"Is something amiss, milord?" Matthew said when I enter the gymnasium… all alone.

I study Matthew's face and begin to remember something. When the spy lady was found to be dead several weeks ago, Matthew asked for my permission not to participate in battle. He said he wanted to take care of something important and had already delegated his duty to a scout…

Now I remember the two of them—I mean Matthew and Leila, the spy lady—often spend the day together. I guess that explains a lot.

I'm thinking of the best answer that will be given to Matthew when I hear that blasted womanizer Sain is in trouble again. This time he is—WTF—wooing Isadora! "Oh, Dame Isadora! Why would the heavens be so cruel to me? Cutting our fate's red thread, ending the beautiful romance we share!"

… and since when you and Isadora are fated? Beautiful romance _we _share, you say? Do you even have any?

… blast. I feel being a woman who is having her period—sulky, in other way. No offense to my female knights, okay, I've never been like this before. I don't see why everybody seems to be obsessed with love! That green-haired Heath, for example, the way he eyes Princess Priscilla is suspicious. Yes, suspicious to me! Then there goes our beloved Oswin! Everbody in the army already told me how 'unbelievably exist' Serra is, but then Oswin gave me a 'very unbelievably exist' answer…

That he _loves_ her talking.

Oh my God.

So let me conclude that love is, indeed, irrational, illogical and stupid. It is stupid because it makes you stupid! Oh, love, a thing to get someone perfectly KO'ed. A thing to make your mind hazy that you, for the very first time, forget or even cancel your sparring appointment with your _bestfriend_, just for the sake of 'trolling' some mysterious damsel in distress story. A thing to make you believe that you are indeed, some lord protector from some land that is given such holy task by some holy spirit to 'maintain a good relationship with the ladies', even if that costs you to put a rose between your teeth. And this little special thing named love is obviously destroying my friends' 'testosterone pride'.

What is worst is that love is everywhere, touching every corners of the army. The war is crazy and full of hatred—meanwhile, hatred is love's evil twin. Obsession. Desperation. Stupidity…

"Good day, Matthew!" a feminine voice pierces my ears out of the blue.

"Ah, good day, milady. Training, I suppose?"

"Oh, yes. We shouldn't let our guards down even if we manage to set the things under control for a while," she answers.

"Very well, I shall not bother you more," Matthew nods understandingly and makes his way out.

Now there are only the two of us, me and this crazy Sacaen girl, Lyn—thanks so much, Matthew, how _you_ indebted to _me_. The crazy half-Sacaen, Lyn—what, you don't like the word 'crazy' I put in front of her name? Well I have my reason, okay? The _very _first time Eliwood introduces us, she criticizes the way I swing my axe. Barbaric, she says. "You can kill your own comrade!" but then again, like any other woman who tries not to be heard offensive, she adds, "I'm sorry, I mean no offense."

That's offense, girlie. Perhaps it will be better if you didn't put "sorry, no offense" in front of it.

She doesn't like me—I mean the Lycian lords, in general. And linking her hatred with Caelin Castle incident—the one who involves her grandfather—I think I understand why. It's because she doesn't find them _trustworthy_. And as a Lycian lord I am, it's clear that she can't trust me.

"Are you going to stand there forever?" she asks sharply.

"You mean _me_?"

"Yes, you! Who else?"

"I just don't believe you're the lady of Caelin Castle anyway," I snort.

"I too don't believe that you're Lord Uther's younger brother," she 'punches' me back.

"Sometimes I don't believe either," I shrug my shoulders. "Just what do you want?"

"Spar with me!" she unsheathes her sword. "You may get the advantage from our training, you know. I can help you to overcome sword attacks, as you help me in improving my speed to rival your strength. That's one effective way a sword wielder can do to cope with such strong opponent."

"Thank you very much for flattering me, milady, and yes, I'm strong."

"What? I don't mean to… oh, why don't you spar with me anyway?"

"You have two loyal knights with you, why me?" I totally have no idea what makes me behaving like this. I never give such reaction before, to almost anyone who fights me.

… but please, wait a minute. I sure never—I don't call my former opponents 'milady'.

There's an awkward silence before she grunts, "how dare you underestimating me like that! You haven't tasted my blade before. Is that because of me being a woman that you decline?"

"Just… gimme a break!" I shout back. "What do you know about fighting? About axe? I have my own fighting style, you know, which you considered barbaric."

"Indeed it is."

"A die hard, aren't you! And you want to spar with a barbarian?" there's a smile on my lips. I feel my lips parted, curved… yes, I'm smiling.

"Does it even matter?"

Then we spar! Her sword is against my chest and my axe is against her temples. She takes a quick step backwards, thus dodging my attack. I swing my axe again and she is no more visible. I feel her presence behind me—a sword points my neck and I give it a blow—

—and her sword is flying lovely in the air in a second.

She catches her sword back, staring at me silently.

"How was it?" I shout enthusiastically. "I am not your everyday barbarian, am I?"

"But that's not… barbaric at all."

Her words are like scattered beads—it looks like that she needs to string them up together to make a fine necklace. And she is doing it carefully…

"Well, I'm sorry to underestimate you, anyway. You're really something, milady," I respond.

"Oh, no!" she shouts back. "It's me who need to say sorry! You know, Hector, I… well… I make prejudices about you but… none of them is right! I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry for judging you by your appearance—"

She kills and revives me at the same time. Such strange girl, this lass. She is still talking but the one and only thing I pay attention to is _her_. Just _her. _Her, aside of her looks or things she is saying.

"… and you even frightened my bestfriend, Florina!"

"And the way you hug Nils is like a ravenous bear trying to kill its prey!"

"Well, my armor makes me look gigantic, I admit it…"

"Yes, and I'm sorry! Thank you for today, Hector, if you want to spar again just tell me."

"… do you, truly… oops, I mean—is this an invitation?"

"Why yes. But you have to wait your turn! I spar with Florina too, and I'm currently mastering long bow with Rath, but when I'm done with those two—"

"Ah, I got it, I got it. Thank you, Lyn. I don't think I'll be having much time to spar with Eliwood, considering his new schedule…" I smirk.

"Well, he is a good lad," Lyn shrugs her shoulders.

"I see you're being a nice bestfriend of Florina, too," I reply her.

"Of course I am," she answers warily. I wait, but she doesn't say anything. She simply waves her hands then disappears in the end of the corridor.

What a unique girl she is…

I smile again. Love is irrational, illogical, weirdly sweet…

… and so is she.

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**Owari**


End file.
